Concerns have been raised that sewage is being released into the River Lagan in Belfast.
South Belfast resident Mark Walsh says he has seen sewage being released into the river from the Newtownbreda Water Treatment plant on several occasions over the past few years and is worried about how it will affect the river and the local environment.
Speaking to Belfast Live, he said: "I have seen this discharge from the river a number of times over the years into quite a clean looking area of the river, turning it brown downstream.
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"This is taking place quite close to the new Lagan Gateway Bridge at Stranmillis, with the sewage being released from the water treatment plant at Newtownbreda."
NI Water has said that any discharges from their sites have been agreed upon by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and are permitted.
A spokesperson said: “Any discharge from Northern Ireland Water assets such as the Newtownbreda Wastewater Treatment Works are permitted discharges. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) regulate NI Water Discharges under the Water Order 1999. This means that they have been agreed and approved by NIEA.”
A DAERA spokesperson said: “Northern Ireland Water Ltd hold a consent to discharge under the Water (NI) Order 1999 for Newtownbreda wastewater treatment works (WwTW) as issued by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).
"NIEA assess compliance of the final treated effluent discharge at Newtownbreda WwTW under the conditions set out within the consent and under the Urban Waste Water Treatment Regulations (NI) 2007. The WwTW has been compliant with all consent conditions for the past several years.
"Newtownbreda WwTW is designed to receive a certain flow from the sewer, with secondary treatment provided for the flow that the WwTW is designed to treat. In wet weather flows can exceed the WwTW treatment capacity and are diverted to storm tanks for storage and settlement, and returned for full treatment when the storm or wet weather has subsided.
"Newtownbreda WwTW is consented for 2,800m³ of storm storage. In the event of prolonged storm or wet weather conditions, the storm tanks may fill and subsequently overflow. The volume and duration of this overflow would be dependent on the wet weather event.
"The Water Order Consent permits an overflow in this instance. The photos and video supplied are the storm overflow location at the WwTW. This overflow is screened to remove any matter greater than 6mm and settled, reducing Suspended Solids and Biochemical Oxygen Demand Levels in the receiving waterway.
"NI Water Ltd have confirmed that the Newtownbreda WwTW was spilling on the 29 th June (the date of the video) due to a combination of wet weather and base maintenance refurbishment work. Storm tank number 1 was turned off for repair with number 2 storm tank still operational. The cumulative rainfall data for the 29 th June and 7 days prior was extremely high.”
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